5- Quality dog work is not between you and your dog. It's between your dog and the bird.

6- Let your dog learn to manage the bird.

7- Instead of trying to get your dog to point, allow him to learn
he can't catch the bird. Staunch, stylish pointing will follow
naturally.

8- Don't teach whoa around birds. Whoa has nothing to do with
birds.

9- When working birds, your dog has not made a mistake until he puts a bird in the air.

10- The dog must know what the command means before he can be corrected for mistakes.

11- An electric collar is not used to teach a dog to perform a
command. It is used when the dog has a complete understanding of the command and chooses not to do it. An electric collar is for reinforcement only.

I neve end a training r a hunt on a bad note. I always make sure the dog does somethign correctly before we are done. Even if that means the dog has to do something as simle as "sit" I always end on a good note.

My favorite thing to do is throwing tennis balls in a dimly lit yard and they get hot dogs upon retrieve.

For starters.....Don't believe the training advice you get from clowns on the internet. If you do some digging, you will find most of them have never trained a dog to any level of competence. They are phony trainers.

Sergeant Hunter wrote:Trust the DOG!Several times this year both in training and in the field I have come up on my brittany on point and thought no way there can be a bird there, sure enough up it flies.

That one catches all of us. There's nothing more humbling than having to apologize to your dog, all the while they're giving you that "I told you so!" look.

Deer Hunter wrote: Never punish your dog when he finally decides to come to you.

A couple weeks ago my dog brought me a chukar.

I had kicked up the planted bird and it flew a short distance into the woods. My dog remained steady while I fired a blank (I'm in the process of breaking her). I called her off and directed her to hunt the field we were working, which she did for about 50 yards before cutting right into the woods, round to my right, tracked the running bird out of sight for several minutes and delivered it to me. She was a bad dog, she did what I told her not to, she knew it, but I accepted the bird with a "good girl".

Use quality good flying birds for training, don't waste time with junky birds. Homers and launchers also work great. Wild birds are best.

Don't put your dog on birds everyday, once or twice a week is great. If you are breaking them maybe 3 or 4 days a week max. If they start getting bored take them off birds for a couple weeks. Just helps keep them intense.

Is he confused?
Does he get it?
Is he going to break?
Is he going to try to blow you off?
Has he had enough?

Short successfull training sessions make a confident dog.

If you are hitting a wall, go back a few training sessions and do something that your pup understands and does. End on a good note. Then try again in a 2 or 3 days later and the light will usually come on.

Make sure you go to the bathroom before you go afield. No sense in hurrying things.

Read lots and lots on this forum. If your questions haven't already been addressed at some point, there are plenty of people ready to give advice about anything. Just be careful not to believe anything as absolutely always true.